Why Airline Mergers Are a Nightmare for Travelers

7/17/2013 12:14PM

Last year United drove its customers crazy as it tried to line up its systems with Continental's. Now customers are complaining about the effects of the marriage of Southwest and AirTran. Scott McCartney looks at the details.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... I ... airline mergers just the ticket travelers greater flexibility and smoother journey so why so many fliers just ... to let down by the mere existence is that Southwest and AirTran ... Mills e-commerce and tablets for Scott McCartney he joins us right now with his now analysis ... and wise advice is always nice to see him face to face interview and I convince us to fly you in every week now phenomenal see a woman when in doubt since the first class by ... making committee of the southwest airstream was in a minute ... to set the stage for submitted I'm you know in terms of why it's so hard when the biggest hurdles for these mergers of resisting whiny need to know when to sell when there are enormous challenges for airlines to merge and ... labor groups everything else but the biggest problem in mergers are passenger reservation systems ... both booking tickets and when you show the airport or on a different computer system ... to the candle on dispensing of of flights ... when those go bad it's enormously diverse disruptive for passengers reservations get lost ... people have trouble claims are we to agents are frustrated passengers are frustrated ... he can be real problem for travelers when these things don't go smoothly frequent flier miles merged it is that pretty easy thing to merge well by comparison they did what's what's difficult for travelers that there are the policy question so every airline has been different perks different aam ... I'm not ... a benefit for different levels and so when you merge ... somebody when somebody loses often nobody is happy with the decisions that are on management makes about what you're going to get in the new treatment for her and tell us things and if it changes the little things can make a trip go bad in it that that tiny thing for the airline can feel like a big thinks few Southwest's AirTran emerged two years ago but I warn you that talking to some travelers who are worst elite unhappy you know they are it's just this year the toughest AirTran ... really started combining reservations I'm so you can ... do it through code sharing you can start out on Southwest and connect to an AirTran flight ... on the other way around aam what travelers are experiencing now ... aam lost baggage when you when you read between the airlines lost reservations in terms of ... you know maybe your AirTran flight in his late teens though yourself lest you go to the South was down or in your honor trend to him and ... he found one guy said they wanted to like it from a different planet ... the the there are running it essentially running two separate airlines two years after the merger ... and it's the it's not going real smoothly so in a manner that might take away every LSI think like ok I care to airlines that like fire merging I miss the fly somebody else for your teachers ... until they get all worked out but right now anybody wants to do that they cut their miles it'll keep their mouth ... I how we help us ... know I don't think so I ... think in the case itself was to trim their ... about three things that you can do ... aam one is make sure you leave yourself a lot of connecting time if you're moving between your once it's not the normal one hour run to the D ... cats can you really don't leave a lot of connecting time both for you ... in your bed and even though bags fly free on Southwest I would avoid checking um if you're if you're connecting to their tram until they get this some ... more work now I'm just to try and avoid the heat and the other thing is ... take all your paperwork with the right because when you show up and and that poured it into his car going back and forth between the AirTran system the southwest system trying to figure out ... where you are ... if you have all your confirmation numbers all your flight information to be a big ... stud Taman have to choose between my Wall Street Journal paperwork and my shoes ... come on ... no contest to add to ... that of imagination which would be the winner with the paperwork and that she ... could ... think of what Scott McCartney Mills a cause for the personal section I think Scott's good to be with